With the advancement of modern information technology, web-based transactions are finding favor and getting more attention from people. Web-based transactions are not subject to territorial limitations (especially remote suburbs and counties) and are not limited by office hours. As long as the requirements for secure online transactions are in place, anyone can easily and conveniently order online from home or from the office.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the fundamental structure of a commonly seen e-commerce system, which consists of client terminal 11, merchant terminal 12, and e-commerce platform 13. Client terminal 11, merchant terminal 12 and electronic commerce (hereinafter “e-commerce”) platform 13 are connected to each other through the Internet. Merchant terminal 12 creates a corresponding merchant name in the e-commerce platform 13, and displays the merchant's products through the e-commerce platform 13. Usually, all the products of a given merchant (also called the merchant's virtual store products) are set-up in linked web pages. The virtual store information of different merchants are set up in each e-commerce platform 13, even the information of other e-commerce platforms are set up, and through the e-commerce platform 13, product information of other merchants are displayed. Client terminal 11 logs into e-commerce platform 13 through the Internet, and selects the desired products to buy from the merchant virtual stores. The settlement of goods payments between client terminal 11 and merchant terminal 12 can be done through third-party payment platforms, express delivery companies, or banks or other financial institutions with financial systems for settling goods payments. What needs to be emphasized is that there are no strict boundaries between merchant terminal 12 and client terminal 11, because many merchants are also buyers. Therefore, the merchant terminal 12 and client terminal 11 mentioned in this present disclosure are separated for the purpose of explaining the application's proposed techniques, and not to restrict all product providers as merchant terminal 12 or all buyers as client terminal 11.
The e-commerce platform 13 mainly includes server 131 and database 132. Database 132 is used mainly to store merchant information, including the merchant name, product information, client information and product transaction information. Server 131 mainly consists of an interface display processing unit, an interactive processing unit and a transaction processing unit. The interface display processing unit is used to display product information. The interactive processing unit is used to process the interaction between the merchant and the client. The transaction processing unit is used to process the transaction.
The merchants that sign contracts with e-commerce platform 13 are big companies. Each merchant supplies numerous products, and there is a level of difficulty for the interface display processing unit to display the merchants' products. A commonly used method of the interface display processing unit to control product display is discussed below.
First, each merchant is provided with the webpage address that displays their product information. Next, rules for displaying the products are established. The display rules can stipulate that the products of a merchant should not be in the ‘launch’ state from start to finish. Product launch refers to the product information appearing in the e-commerce platform 13, which provides the information to the merchant's webpage and all its subpage systems, where said subpage systems refers to the merchant's webpage subpages, the subpages' succeeding subpages, etc.
The interface display processing unit will check if the merchant's webpage and its subpages contain products that have reached a predefined maximum launch period (e.g. 7 days). If yes, the product will undergo a withdrawal process. Withdrawal process means that a product's webpage will be disconnected, so that clients will not be able to visit the webpage. As for product launching, the merchant, based on its own experience, should launch a product at the time when there are many visitors and transactions.
Besides product launching and withdrawal, the interface display processing unit controls the merchant's product list. The product information that is nearest the withdrawal time is to be displayed at the top of the list. The interface display processing unit allows the corresponding webpages of the products that are displayed at the top of the product list to be easily visited by the clients.
The current methods of launching or withdrawing products have the following drawbacks:
First, there are no unified rules on product launching. The e-commerce platform has no way to control the launching of products, and it can only use its self-defined rules (e.g., at the start, merchants can launch no more than 10 products) to singularly control whether a product can be launched or not. However, it cannot provide controls targeted at specific products (or product groups). For example, reading glasses for old people are typically better launched in the morning than in the evening, and fashionable items for young people are typically better launched in the evening or afternoon than in the morning. The merchant only decides when to launch products based on the merchant's own experience. This method of launching products is difficult for the merchants, especially if launching numerous products. A merchant can easily miss out on an opportunity for a sale due to inaccurate product launch times.
Next, the interface display processing unit checks the merchant's webpage and its subpages for products that have reached the predefined maximum launch period (e.g., 7 days). These products will undergo the withdrawal process. This method of controlling the withdrawal process also causes technical inconsistencies. For example, a certain product has been sold out, but the merchant forgets to withdraw the product. If the above-mentioned way of processing is allowed to continue, the sold-out product will utilize a huge amount of resources, resulting in wastage.
Lastly, the product information that is nearest the withdrawal time is displayed at the top of the product list. When there are many products being launched, the interface display processing unit needs to utilize a huge amount of time and resources to arrange and display the items in the product list, thus wasting resources and causing a delay in providing information to clients.